May 1945

Eastern Front

In Berlin the Tiergarten falls to the 8th Army. The Reichstag falls to the 3rd Shock Army after a bloody battle. Half of the 5,000 defenders are killed during the fighting.

With Hitler gone the Germans in Berlin begin to seek terms for surrender. After much deliberation with Bormann and Goebbels, Gen Krebs, the Chief of the General Staff, cross the Soviet lines under a flag of truce to discuss the options for surrender. He is taken to Gen Chuikov of 8th Guards Army who relays his request by telephone to Zhukov and he in turn to Stalin. Krebs tries to seek a settlement whereby the fighting ceases and terms are discussed, but the Russians demand the complete and unconditional surrender of all German armies. Krebs is unable to agree to this and returns to the Bunker, informing Bormann and Goebbels of the Russian demands. Goebbels refuses to surrender.

Around the Chancellery the Germans come under massive attack. Many of the German units have run out of ammo and begin to surrender of their own accord. Weidling recognizes this fack and decides to surrender his surviving forces the following day.

The 12th Army and remnants of the 9th Army struggle to beat off the attacks of the Soviet forces south of Berlin while in Bohemia Prague rises in revolt.

On the Adriatic coast, Tito's partisans link up with the 2nd New Zealand Division of the British 8th Army advancing from Italy. The meeting of the 2 forces at Montefalcone seals the fate of the 150,000 men of Army Group E in Croatia and Slovenia.